Ailing Murray Pulls Back From Brink to Reach 3rd Round in Paris

Andy Murray used mind over matter to
advance at tennis’s Paris Open today as he overcame a back spasm
that left him barely able to move and close to giving up.

Murray beat 48th-ranked Jarkko Nieminen 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2
on the main Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros to reach
the third round and keep alive his chances of a first major win.

The Briton, 25, appeared finished in the first set as he
was unable to push off on the red clay and struggled to bend his
legs as he served. He grimaced, frequently bent over after
points and had trouble running to his forehand side. The crowd
grew silent as Murray at one stage sliced a serve at a speed of
71 mph, about 60 percent of his normal pace.

“Just kind of gritting my teeth and trying to find a way
of turning the match around, because I was a few points probably
from stopping,” Murray said in a news conference.

He’d dropped the first set in 37 minutes as he made 16
errors and won the point on his first serve just 36 percent of
the time. Murray seemed on the way to a quick defeat.

Murray, who received treatment in the first set and the
start of the second, trailed 4-2 in the second when the match
turned around. He won the next four games and leveled the match
as the Finn double-faulted on set point. The Scot went on to
clinch victory as Nieminen hit a forehand long, his 51st error.

“The combination of him getting a little bit nervous and
me moving a little bit better at the end of the second set
changed the match,” said Murray, who made 42 mistakes.

Nieminen has now lost all four matches against Murray.

Muscle Spasm

“He made some mistakes at the end of the second set, and
it was his fault for letting me back into the match, because I
didn’t do anything special,” Murray said. “I just tried to put
some balls back in.”

Murray said he’d talked to his team about retiring before
the match after he’d woken up with the muscle spasm in his back.
He said today’s problem was “completely different” from the
one that kept him out of the Madrid Masters before the French
Open.

“It’s one of those things, you can wake up sometimes with
a cricked neck or sleeping in the wrong position or whatever,”
Murray said. “I was absolutely perfect yesterday. I had no
problems at all.”

The right-hander had one of his most consistent seasons in
2011, making the semifinals at each of the four majors. He was
beaten last year in Paris by eventual champion Rafael Nadal of
Spain.

First Grand Slam

Still seeking his first Grand Slam title after three losses
in finals, Murray hired eight-time major champion Ivan Lendl at
the start of the year. Lendl, who watched from the stands today,
won 28 clay titles including three French Opens.

Murray said he wasn’t worried about the summer, when he’ll
play Wimbledon and the Olympic tennis tournament, also held at
the All England Club.

“If it is just a muscle spasm, then that’s nothing to be
overly concerned by,” said Murray, who next plays Colombia’s
Santiago Giraldo. “But they are, when they happen, very
difficult to shake off, especially when it’s early morning. It
takes a bit of time for your body to warm up and stuff. I’m not
doing any permanent damage by finishing a match like I did
today.”